Consumer protection and financial innovation

The EBA promotes a transparent, simple and fair internal market for consumers in financial products and services. The EBA seeks to foster consumer protection in financial services across the EU by identifying and addressing detriment consumers may experience, or are at risk of experiencing, in their dealings with financial firms. The role and tasks of the EBA related to consumer protection and financial activities include: collecting, analysing and reporting on consumer trends in the EU; reviewing and coordinating financial literacy and education initiatives; developing training standards for the industry; contributing to the development of common disclosure rules; monitoring existing and new financial activities; issuing warnings if a financial activity poses a serious threat to the EBA's objectives as set out in the its funding Regulation; and temporarily prohibiting or restraining certain financial activities, provided certain conditions are met.

Technical Standards, Guidelines & Recommendations

These Guidelines define the criteria Competent Authorities should consider when stipulating the minimum monetary amount of the professional indemnity insurance (PII) or comparable guarantee for payment initiation and account information service providers under the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2)

These draft Guidelines are part of the EBA’s work to support the core objectives of the PSD2 of strengthening the integrated payments market across the European Union, ensuring a consistent application of the legislative framework and promoting transparency.

These technical standards are aimed at enhancing the comparability of fees through standardised terminology and disclosure documents across the European Union. This will allow consumers to compare offers from different payment services providers and to make informed decisions on the payment account that best suits their needs.

Status: Final draft adopted by the EBA and submitted to the European Commission

Opinions, Reports and other Publications

Opinions

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an Opinion responding to the European Commission’s (EC) intention to amend the EBA’s draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on strong... Read more

In an Opinion issued today, the EBA welcomed the Commission’s proposal to bring virtual currency exchange platforms and custodian wallet providers within the scope of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering... Read more

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on creditworthiness assessment, as well as its final Guidelines on arrears and foreclosure. These Guidelines support the... Read more

In an opinion issued today, the European Banking Authority (EBA) recommended that EU legislators clarify the applicability of existing EU law to lending-based crowdfunding, so as to ensure that all... Read more

26/02/2015

Warnings

The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued today a warning on a series of risks deriving from buying, holding or trading virtual currencies such as Bitcoins. The EBA said that consumers are not... Read more

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) have published a warning to retail investors about the dangers of investing in contracts for difference... Read more

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Decision specifying the formula to be used by creditors when calculating the benchmark rate under the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD). The MCD requires creditors to...Read more »

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a consultation paper on its proposed benchmark rate under the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD), which requires creditors to create two illustrative examples in the European Standardised Information Sheet (ESIS) for variable rate mortgages on the basis of a benchmark rate specified by the EBA... Read more »

The Joint Committee of the three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA) launched today a call for expressions of interest with the aim... Read more »

18/11/2014

Discussion paper on draft requirements on passport notifications for credit intermediaries
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a discussion paper on the draft requirements for passport notifications for mortgage credit intermediaries across the EU. The requirements will ensure that information about credit intermediaries that carry out business in one or more Member States is exchanged consistently between the competent authorities of the home Member State and of the host Member State. Read more...11/12/2014

In accordance with the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR), the EBA is tasked with monitoring the market for structured deposits across the European Union. In its paper, the EBA proposes a set of criteria and factors and includes... Read more »

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA) published a reminder to banks and insurance companies across the EU on the consumer protection requirements that.....Read more »

Consumer and investor protection is a common statutory objective of the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) - the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). As part of delivering... Read more »

The EBA has had the opportunity to examine the issue of the envisaged new Top Level Domains (TLDs) ending in ‘.bank' and ‘.fin' in detail and to discuss it in the latest meeting of its Board of Supervisors in December 2011... Read more »

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Report presenting the conclusions of its assessment on the topic of innovative uses of consumer data by financial institutions. The Report... Read more

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its fifth annual Consumer Trends Report, which provides an overview of the trends observed in 2016, the issues that will or could have an impact... Read more